PHCCIMA Boss Calls For Corporate Partnership Premised On Research And Curriculum Development In Our Universities
President of Port Harcourt Chamber of Commerce Industries, Mines and Agriculture, Engr Emeka Unachukwu has urged tertiary institutions in the country to create an engagement scheme with the corporate world that is premised on developing our educational curriculum and research in line with global standards.
Unachukwu made this declaration at the 1st Corporate Society Day of the Rivers State University of Science and Technology (RSUST) and formal launch of RSUST Corporate Society Project held at the Amphitheatre of the university in Port Harcourt.
In his lecture, titled “Corporate Partnerships In Developing Educational Curriculum and Research”, Unachukwu pointed out that Nigerian Universities are regrettably left behind in the area of research because of irregular and inadequate funding, poor national policy on education, poor research motivation, decline in research infrastructure and more calling for corporate partnership that will promote Greater Educational Advancement Response System (GEARS).
He said Nigerian Universities are left behind because they are yet to make breakthroughs in research that will benefit the entirety of the country and impact the world, lamenting that the word 'research' has been wrongfully defined from the Nigeria context whereby scholars rather than researching for growth, now research for promotion and personal prestige.
He said corporate partnership with universities based only on infrastructural development alone cannot take our universities to that valuable pedestal in the comity of universities in the world calling for greater involvement in research and curriculum.
Explaining the determination of the UST to compete with the best in the world, the vice chancellor, Bariname B Fakae, who traced the university's journey and the way ahead, said the dark days of the university which were marked by cultism, exam fraud, grade sale, strikes and violence have gone for good. He regretted that the UST had suffered 22 strikes in its 29 years in existence, saying the stakeholders had resolved that never again would strike be an option.
Outlining what the UST had achieved in the few years of transformation including accreditation of all its 38 courses, upgrading from 76th to 19th best university in Nigeria, advancement in e-learning, becoming Nigeria's foremost centre for computer-based tests (CBTs), uploading of 13 years of results for online access, etc, Fakae asked the corporate society to help the UST to become one of the best in the world.
Others that spoke include, Prof Godwin Tasie, Justice Adolphus Karibi Whyte and governor Chibuike Rotimi Amaechi who was represented by the hnourable commissioner for commerce and Industry in the state, Chuma Chienye